http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6096594.stm
"The Stern Review says that climate change represents the greatest
and widest-ranging market failure ever seen. And on the basis of this
intellectually rigorous and thorough report, it is hard to disagree.
Sir Nicholas Stern, a distinguished development economist and former
chief economist at the World Bank, is not a man given to hyperbole."
...
"Putting all these factors together, he comes up with the stark
conclusion that if we do nothing to stem climate change, there could
be a permanent reduction in consumption per head of 20%.
In other words, everyone in the world would be a fifth poorer than
they would otherwise have been.
Even worse, these costs will not be shared evenly. There will be a
disproportionate burden on the poorest countries.
So here's the winning formula: Stern says spend 1% of world GDP to be
20% richer than we will otherwise be. It looks like a no-brainer.
There is another way of presenting this analysis of benefits versus
costs.
Stern says that if you take the present value (the value in today's
money) of the benefits over the coming years of taking action to
stabilise greenhouse gases by 2050, then deduct the costs, you end up
with a "profit" of $2.5 trillion (£1.32 trillion).
Any way you look at it, the financial case for tackling climate
change looks watertight."
--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
tried it.
-- Donald E. Knuth
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